By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It’s been a little over a year since I went to see the smart fortwo at a Dallas stop on the traveling road show that preceded its sales in the U.S. I was wowed by the brightly painted, road-hugging micro cars with their cozy seats, wide-view windshields and buggy like demeanor.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Many employees spend their entire work life under artificial lights. This situation can affect their moods as well as their performance. A landmark 2003 study for the Environmental Protection Agency by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that natural light improves an employee’s vision, function, and productivity, but most important, mood-it wards off depression and alleviates job stress.

In their book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about a new Herman Miller furniture factory that was redesigned with bigger windows and skylights, allowing sunshine to pour into the entire workspace. The employees’ mood improved immediately, and so did productivity.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
There’s science, and there’s applied science. Here’s some interesting applied science: Nanobamas. OK. We get that everything’s Obama right now. Obama-drama. Obama-rama. But nanobamas?
The scoop: John Hart, an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Michigan wants to expand our understanding of nanotechnology, which could be [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

If global warming wasn’t so devastatingly tangible, it would sound like part of a doomsday cult. Consider these projections of the future for a swath of the U.S.

First up: Kansas, the American heartland, breadbasket to the world, a place of amber waves of grain…a place we might not recognize by century’s end.

Under projected global warming scenarios, Kansas will become hotter and drier, with more insects and more storms during the next several decades. By century’s end, western Kansas will be so arid, it will need 8 more inches of water to sustain crops there. Eastern Kansas will be wetter, but so warm that evaporation will claim the extra rainfall and southwestern Kansas will be a virtual desert. All this according to a report released last week by University of Kansas scientists Nathaniel Brunsell and Johannes Feddema for the Climate Change and Energy Project based in Salina, Kansas.

But wait, Dorothy, there’s more.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work
Here’s one of the most inspiring stories from Saving The World at Work (The Joan story).
Joan works in the legal group in one of Microsoft’s business units in Washington.  She’s passionate about the environment, and wanted to help Microsoft become a leader in this area.  She moved the needle [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

Columbus, Ohio. It’s not the first place you think of when green cities come to mind. Or the second or the third.

Indeed, there’s a whole string of burgs more strongly associated with sustainability. There’s Boulder with its rock solid commitment to community gardens, organic food mecca Eugene and all wind-powered Austin. The U.S. has many traditional pockets of non-tradition paying daily homage to the green spirit.

But now here comes Columbus — and Little Rock, and Raleigh, and Sioux Falls. These regular-folks towns are getting their green groove on too. They’re setting up sustainability offices, buying biodiesel buses, hosting solar car events and designing new bike lanes.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Don’t know if it’s the financial crisis, the change of seasons or just the usual grumpiness over the incessant despoiling of the mothership, but the green agitators seem especially edgy lately.
Reuters reported Monday that Greenpeace had blockaded palm oil ships leaving an Indonesian port bound for China and Europe. Their [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

The latest recall of cheap-stuff-from-China-that-we-can’t-seem-to-get-enough-of is rich with irony.

The item being recalled, a two-necklace set containing lead and sold by Claire’s Boutiques for $8, features a yin-yang design in black and white. The words “Best” and “Friends” are inscribed above the medallion on each necklace. Sadly, it’s another example of how cheap imports from China are not our best friends.

It breaks my heart to think about the little girls whose pocket money would just cover such an item and how they begged their parents to let them buy it for themselves — and their best friends. Lead, as you know, is dangerous for children if ingested or absorbed.

To see the full details on this toxic piece of jewelry see the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

Consider this an early warning for the holiday season, beware the glittery, shiny painted bauble for $8.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Here’s a free eBook, an exerpt from my new book Saving The World At Work:

The Aveda Story

You’ll find it inspiring, interesting and very thought provoking. You’ll learn that sustainable businesses are filled with people who “report to the planet.”

Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

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By Barbara Kessler

The question keeps coming up on newscasts and blogs: Now that gas prices are abating will Americans revert to their guzzling ways. Or put another way: Are we stupid?

Seriously, this is a legitimate question. Look at our history. Our memory of tough energy times in the 1970s was short. The next decade brought a celebration of consumption, and stagnation on the green energy front.

The current economic freeze may temporarily cloud any clear verdict on our behavior this go-round. Consider the person with the gas-guzzling vehicle that they’d like to unload. They may be unable to buy a new gas-sipper and take on debt. Even someone who can afford to make a change may be holding out for a better built hybrid, those clean diesels coming our way or the all-electric cars we keep hearing will be here in 2010. (Here’s betting GM dearly wishes it was a year closer on its Volt.)

But should $2.50 a gallon gasoline cause us to waver in kicking our oil addiction, we may have a less co-dependent government this time. Politicians of both parties support clean energy initiatives, and both presidential contenders have proposed tax incentives for people buying fuel efficient cars. These incentives mimic those already in place for hybrid cars, but also go beyond to include other types of eco-friendly vehicles.

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Concerns about the loss of aquatic life, including the fish we eat, have rippled around the globe this year with warnings about the loss of certain salmon, the Alaskan Pollock (the fish sticks fish) and of course sharks, which are becoming endangered at alarming rates.

This week brought more hard to digest news, that mountains of edible saltwater fish are being ground up and turned into animal food, for farm-raised fish, chickens and pigs, no less. This raises so many questions that it would be difficult to list them all here. But let’s start with: “What happens when pigs and chickens are forcibly turned into carnivores?” and “We’re catching fish to feed fish, really?”

“It defies reason to drain the ocean of small, wild fishes that could be directly consumed by people in order to produce a lesser quantity of farmed fish,” said Dr. Ellen K. Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science and a professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, one sponsor of the study “Forage Fish: From Ecosystems to Markets”.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Here is my latest You Tube video from the book tour.

This week took me to two wonderful places: Park City (Sundance) UT and Honolulu. I made to stop and notice the beauty everywhere. I realized how important is was to appreciate nature’s bounty.

I finally met Ray Anderson, founder of Interface Inc. and sustainability pioneer. He was the opening keynote at a sustainability summit I moderated. His talk was inspiring. I’ll report fully on it later, but one question he asked provoked me: Can you think of a place in your mind where there is peace and serenity? Did you just think of a spot in nature? We all raised our hand and collectively realized how important nature was to us.

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